Red Vines and Chocolate
by inkheart9459
Summary: Emma doesn't know how she ended up at Yale, but it happened. The only small snag is that she forgot to fill out her roommate matching form in the flurry of financial aid worries and now she desperately hopes that she doesn't have a horrible person to live with. On first impression, Regina Mills may just be exactly the opposite of what she hoped for.
1. Chapter 1: Move In Day

This is for Swan Queen Week Winter 2015 day 2 Roommate AU, enjoy.

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Emma pulled up to her dorm and just stared at it. She wasn't quite sure this was real. She was at Yale. Yale. Of all fucking places. Eighteen years ago she was abandoned on the side of the road and here she was at an Ivy League university. In four years she would have her degree in psychology and then her parents, wherever they were, could suck it. She would show them. She had already showed them.

She slammed the door of the Bug shut. The only problem here was she had accepted a little late and in the haze of trying to work out everything with her financial aid she had overlooked the stupid roommate selection form or whatever. She wasn't exactly sure what the form was supposed to do since it asked questions like "How messy are you?" and who exactly was going to tell the truth on questions like that, but she was a little nervous about it. She didn't want someone who partied constantly but she didn't want someone with a stick up their ass and she certainly didn't want someone who woke up at the ass crack of dawn. Except that she had voided her one and only chance to even have a little input on that. She wasn't convinced that the university really super cared what was on the forms anyway. If she had needed to go be placed in a room with someone she wouldn't have matched with it would have happened whether she filled out the form or not.

She grabbed her backpack and one of the few bags she had of clothes out and walked into the building. The check in process was chaotic. There were other freshman literally everywhere and their parents were even worse. Emma did her best to avoid them, filled out the forms for her keys as fast as possible, took the room condition form, and fled up to the third floor where she'd be living. Part of her hoped that her roommate wouldn't already be there and part of her hoped she would. She wanted to pick her side of the room but she also didn't want to send the wrong message by picking the side that her roommate wanted. She wanted as little drama as possible, really.

She climbed the stairs quickly. The elevator was no better than a mosh pit at the moment. It was sort of a good thing at this point that she had very little stuff. She walked down the long hall, counting off numbers looking for 308. When she found it the door was already open and there was sound of movement coming from within. Emma stepped in and knocked on the door. A brunette with light bronze skin looked up at her, surveying her intently.

"Hi, I'm Emma Swan," Emma stepped forward with her hand outstretched. "It looks like I'm your roommate for the year."

The brunette's lip twitched up just barely as she reached out and shook Emma's hand firmly. "Regina Mills, pleasure."

Emma wasn't exactly sure what the whole cold attitude was about, but whatever. She stepped towards the side without all of Regina's stuff on it and plopped her bags down.

"So where are you from?" Emma asked. She started to open her bag of clothes and unpack them with practiced movements. If nothing else moving in and out of foster homes and group homes had taught her how to settle into a place quickly enough.

"Maine." Regina offered nothing else, but went right back to unpacking.

"Oh, cool, I lived up there when I was kid. But right before this I lived just outside Boston. It's cool there."

"How quaint."

Emma looked over again at the girl. Fine, if she wanted to be a cold bitch, let her. She unpacked her fist bag quickly and threw the stuff in her backpack into her desk before setting the bag in the bottom of the closet and going out to the Bug for more.

Three loads and she had everything unloaded and she was glad. She stared at the bags in her room for a few seconds before deciding to move the Bug. She had gotten permission from the university to keep it on campus even though she was a freshman since she was an independent student with no family to speak of, but that didn't mean it needed to be right in the middle of the chaos that was move in day for any longer than need be.

By the time she was back in her room what looked like Regina's parents were in the room. The older woman, her mother, Emma bet, was berating Regina for not being done unpacking yet. The man just stood back and looked like a kicked puppy. Emma slipped to her side of the room and started to unpack again. She knew from experience that if she tried to interfere it would only come back to bite Regina.

Her parents left in a huff not long after. Her mother didn't even say goodbye to Regina, but her father hugged her and told her he loved her and was proud of her before her mother yelled in the hallway for him to come on. Emma cringed. That might just explain why the hell Regina had been a super bitch earlier.

Regina, for her part, now that her mother was gone, kept unpacking calmly. Emma read her posture though, and it was anything but calm. She wanted to do something to make the girl feel better, but she didn't really know Regina and most of the things she could think of were things she used to comfort smaller kids back in foster homes. Those things probably wouldn't go over so well.

Emma frowned for a minute before digging in one of her bags and pulling out a huge tub of Red Vines. It was the one splurge she had allowed herself while shopping for school supplies. The thing would last her forever through a bunch of late nights studying so she didn't really feel too bad about it. She ripped the top off and took one and bit off a piece. She really fucking loved Red Vines.

"Want one?" Emma offered the tub to Regina.

Regina looked at her for a long moment, eyes unreadable before she reached out and took one. She peeled off one of the strings and ate it slowly. A smile appeared on her face after she finished chewing, but only for a moment. Emma smiled at her before going back to unpacking again.

"So," she said after a long while. "What are you majoring in?"

Regina hesitated again, Emma saw her face twist out of the corner of her eye. It was clear she couldn't quite decide to snap at her again or be at least a little nicer.

"Poly Sci and astronomy," Regina said eventually in a civil, if not warm tone.

Emma smiled at the improvement. "I'm a psych major. But really? Poly Sci and astronomy? Why that combination? What are you gonna do with those two things?"

Regina stiffened just a little bit. "Astronomy is just for my own enjoyment, really, and only as long as it doesn't interfere with my political science studies." She sounded as if she was reciting something that had been said to her a thousand times.

Emma bit the side of her mouth for half a second. "Your mom wants you to be a lawyer, doesn't she? And you'd rather be an astronomer."

Regina didn't look at her for a long time after that. She unpacked slowly and steadily, back ramrod straight. Emma hoped she hadn't fucked up the little bit of goodwill that the Red Vine had brought her. She had a feeling that she probably shouldn't ever mention Regina's mother, but what was the point in that? It was like not mentioning the elephant in the tiny little dorm room.

Maybe in return she should offer some secret of hers. But she really didn't want to do that. Here she could be anything she wanted and the last thing she wanted was to be the poor little foster kid again. But sooner or later family would come up and Emma didn't really want to lie either. She did live in break housing for a reason. If anything the fact that she wasn't going home for winter break might just give it away.

"My foster parents kicked me out as soon as I turned eighteen. I was still three months from finishing high school. Needless to say, they don't exactly care what I major in, they only cared about the monthly checks I brought in."

They were silent again. Emma went to putting up the posters she had bought just to liven up the room a bit, fairytale posters, but not the cutesie Disney ones, they were artistic renditions of the Grimm stories. Some were a bit morbid if you looked closely at them, but they were all beautiful so you almost didn't notice it. When she sat back on her heels on her still unmade bed she smiled. Put her books on her desk, make her bed, and she'd be done.

"How did you end up here, then?" Regina asked quietly.

"I always did well in school, even with all the switching around. School was the one place I could get away, you know? As I got older I realized that doing well could be my ticket out, too, so I kept it up. Senior year rolled around and I applied to all the state schools, of course, and then a bunch of schools that had really good reputations for financial aid, last, honestly, was schools with super good psych programs and ivy leagues just because I could. I had all the application fees waved since I was a foster kid, might as well." Emma flopped down off her heels onto her butt on the bed. She crisscrossed her legs and leaned her elbows on them. Might as well get comfortable.

"Then I got kicked out, and that was the address I'd given for all my applications. One of my foster brothers brought me my mail when he could, but he had to sneak it past the parents, because they said I'd never get any of it. I ended up getting the Yale acceptance letter three weeks later. When I saw it was a big envelope I almost flipped shit. I couldn't believe I'd gotten in. But it was three weeks later, you know? I didn't think they'd still have a place for me. I called them and explained everything that had happened. I was couch surfing between friends, staying in a shelter when I couldn't find anywhere else, still going to school every day, but I managed to work out everything with the financial aid office here and suddenly I was actually going to an Ivy League school. I really didn't believe it. It's still kind of not real and I'm sitting here. And I hope those fucks who threw me out regret it. They won't, but I hope someday, just maybe they'll realize that they're horrible people."

Regina put the last of her bags in her closet, neatly nestled inside one another. "So the psych major, you want to help children who were like you?"

Emma hummed to the affirmative. "Yeah, I'm going to go up through my doctorate, get certified and all that, maybe found my own practice, maybe just work for another office, but I'm going to do pro bono work with foster kids whenever I can."

"Sounds like a noble pursuit." Regina still wasn't looking at Emma. She was organizing her desk now, books in their place, pencils neatly arranged in a cup. "Stars were the first thing I ever remember looking at. My father, he loves the night sky, taught me all the constellations before I ever started school. I got older and I never lost my love from them. I always wanted to learn more. They were always a comfort to me when my mother was being…difficult. But she says its not a practical career, that becoming a lawyer and then a politician is a much better route. My father…well, he loves me, but he's weak. The best I can hope for is to double major, but after that… My mother always gets her way."

Emma thought about her response for a few minutes. There wasn't really anything she could say, but. "I feel like I'm sorry here would be the wrong thing to say, but at the same time." Emma shrugged. "I haven't gotten the psych degree yet."

"I need no pity. I will do well enough on my own without it. It's a useless sentiment." Regina's lip curled.

"Don't know about that, sometimes I think it helps even just a little bit. It's supposed to anyway."

Regina looked her dead in the eye for once. "Do you want anyone pitying you for being a foster kid?"

Emma scowled at that. "Fine, you have a point."

Regina's mouth ghosted up into a smile again. She turned to look at her side of the room. From what Emma could see it was completely done. Regina sighed and pulled out the desk chair and sat down as if it was a throne.

"I always do, dear."

Emma rolled her eyes at that. She got up and started to make her bed. The thing was hard as a rock just to sit on; she wondered how she was going to sleep on it. She might have to dig into her limited funds to get one of those egg crate thingies.

"So, are you actually _in_ any poly sci or astronomy courses this semester or are you in gen eds?" Emma asked, unfolding the fitted sheet and trying to find which way went what. She swore they made them so it was impossible.

"I'm in the intro level course of both poly sci and astronomy, but my other two class are gen eds, writing 101 and calc two."

"What time do you have writing 101?" She knew she had the class, but forgot exactly when.

"Tuesday and Thursday at two to four."

"With Professor Wen?"

"Yes, why?"

Emma looked over her shoulder and smiled at Regina while trying to reach a far corner of her bed. "We have that class together then. Want to get lost together looking for the classroom?"

Regina frowned. "I don't get lost."

Emma snorted. "It's a big campus, it's probably going to happen. But fine, I'll amend that to, do you want to go together?"

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt."

"Good."

She made her bed quickly and organized her desk. She looked it over again. It looked like the room could be lived in now that everything was done. She flopped back on her bed. Thing was still hard as a rock even laying down. She was totally going to have to bust out the money for an egg crate.

"Ugh, these things are hard as rocks," Emma groaned.

Regina snorted. "I brought a foam mattress pad."

"I'm gonna need something or my ribs are gonna break sleeping here." She sat up again as her stomach growled loudly. She looked sheepishly at Regina. "Wanna go find the nearest Walmart and grab something to eat?"

Regina hesitated.

Emma hopped off the bed and grabbed Regina's hand while completely in her view. She tugged gently, ignoring how her heart had sped up at the feel of Regina's skin on hers. Yeah, she was attractive and Emma was open to girls, but Jesus this was her roommate and no.

Regina came with her tug and stood up. "Well, I suppose if you're going to be a child about it."

"Oh it won't harm you to go to Walmart." She dropped Regina's hand though regretted it instantly. "Besides, I'm sure we'll end up there a lot. And they do have those containers of Red Vines there." She gestured over her shoulder.

Regina eyed the container. "Well, it wouldn't hurt to know where the important stores are, after all."

Emma laughed. Yeah, friends. She could be friends with Regina, sure. They were roommates after all and friends would be a good thing. Just friends.

She led Regina down the stairs again, telling her about her car. If Regina looked relieved at not having to ride the bus, well, Emma wouldn't blame her.


	2. Chapter 2: Finals Week

Emma groaned loudly and slumped into her bed. Her last final had killed her. Absofuckinglutely killed her. Philosophy was not her strong suit in the slightest. God damn gen eds. At least she already had her history, math, lab, and social science gen eds out of the way. With the writing and humanities gen eds that she had knocked out this semester she only had her physical activity, speaking, art, and global outlook ones to go and then she could focus just on psych.

She laid there for a little while, not really tired, but definitely not up to actually getting up either. The semester was over. She could lay around in the room for a month. And she was going to start it right now. God who in the world even cared about Plato? She groaned again just as Regina entered the room.

"That bad?" She asked, setting down her books.

Emma turned her head so she could look at Regina and blew her hair out of her face. She wasn't really successful, but it would do. "Worse. God I knew he wrote bad tests, but this one took the cake."

"I'm sure it will be fine, Emma. You studied for days."

"God, I hope so." She mustered up the energy to sit up. "How was your calc test?"

Regina shivered. "Professor Gold is a dark sorcerer if I've ever seen one. Calc two should not be that hard, yet he makes it as convoluted as Elvish and wants you to sell your soul to him to be able to understand. It's despicable." She huffed and crossed her arms. "But it's over now I suppose."

"Your astro final the last one you have tomorrow?"

"It is."

Emma nodded. "Cool. If you need me out of the room just kick me out. The lounge has plugs for my laptop and I'll bring the Red Vines with me and just have a nice little camp out."

Regina waved her off. "There's no need right now, dear. I need a bit of a break."

"Food?"

Regina bit her lip. She had opened up a great deal and become less and less hesitant about things her mother wouldn't approve of, especially around Emma, but she was still rather tame sometimes and all too fiery at others. Still, even with that they had become the best of friends over the semester. Emma couldn't recall being closer with anyone in her life. There was still that little thrill that ran through her every time that Regina touched her, but Emma always pushed it down. They were great friends and Emma didn't want to lose that, not when she had just gotten a real friend after all this time.

"Can we go to that place with the sinful chocolate sundae?" Regina's eyes lit up. She really, really loved chocolate but her mother hardly ever allowed her to have it.

Emma smiled. "Oh my god, that sounds so good. It's the perfect finals recovery food."

Suddenly Emma wasn't so exhausted anymore. She sprang up out of bed and grabbed the keys to the Bug off her desk. She was back into her boots before Regina could even blink.

"You want get a burger too while we're at it?"

Regina nodded. "Of course, sugar alone wouldn't make a good meal to study on."

Emma laughed and linked her arm through Regina's. "Admit it, I've corrupted you."

Regina glared at her. "You've done no such thing. To admit that you've corrupted me would be to admit that you have somehow forcibly changed me and I change for no one."

Emma snorted. "Right, and do you remember the first time we went to Granny's two weeks into the semester and you lectured me about my bad eating habits because I got a burger and fries while you ordered a salad. In fact, I remember that it wasn't until after that really bad midterm you had in poly sci that I even got you to try a french fry. Then it was all downhill from there."

Regina pulled out of Emma's grip as they walked down the hall towards the stairs. She glared at Emma again, but Emma knew there was no heat behind it. Regina's glares at the beginning of the semester had been downright icy, this one was just a tad chilly.

They walked to the Bug together, talking about Emma's answers on her philosophy final. Regina thought she had put down thoughtful answers, but Emma was still terrified. Regina told her a few of the problems on the calc exam, but Emma had no real clue what she was talking about beyond taking derivatives and integrals. Calculus in high school had been easy enough, but calc two seemed heinous.

The Bug started right up and Emma patted the dashboard. Old, she definitely was, but still good most days. Regina snorted at her little tradition.

"What? You laugh, but I forget to do it and then we end up having to ride the bus. I know you remember. You complained the whole way there and back."

That shut Regina up. Emma smirked and her and shifted the Bug into gear and backed out of the parking lot and headed towards Granny's. She had discovered the place off the recommendation of an older classmate in her behavioral disorders class. It had turned out to be the best thing the older girl had told her all semester. Everything else had mostly been about party spots, which Emma had indulged in from time to time, but other than that access to good cheap food was definitely more important.

They walked in and the older woman smiled at them. Emma didn't have a lot of money to spend on extra food out, but when she did it was almost always at Granny's. The older woman had taken a liking to her and Emma didn't mind at all. Over break she was going to pick up a few shifts at the diner to get some extra spending cash. It gave the workers at the diner a bit more leeway in taking off shifts for the holidays and it gave Emma money so it was beneficial all around.

"Hello girls, usuals?" Granny asked them in her normal gruff tone.

Emma nodded and smiled. "Of course. Finals week calls for recovery food, Granny."

Regina came up beside her, hand coming to rest between Emma's shoulder blades. "I'll have the same thing as she is, Granny."

Granny's smile turned into a smirk. "Finals recovery food, eh?" She ripped a ticket off her pad and bustled away. "Sit yourselves in your normal spot, it'll be out in a few."

They walked together to their normal booth in the corner and sat down. Emma stretched out on her side of the booth and groaned.

"God, I can't believe first semester is over already, can you?" Emma asked.

"It's not quite over for me yet, dear, but I understand where you're coming from. I feel like move in was yesterday."

Emma nodded. "Right? God, I'm going to have to figure out where I'm staying for the summer soon. If I get an REU placement I'll just live there for most of the summer and I can use the rest of the money they give me to sublease a place or something. If not, I have no idea." Emma rubbed her head. "Thank god for break housing."

"I would say you could come with me, but that would be a horrible suggestion."

Emma reached across the table and took Regina's hand. She had gotten better about closing off about her mother during the semester as well, but she still tensed up. Emma was sure that after the break Regina was going to be just as tense as she was in the beginning as well. If Emma ever saw that woman again she was going to hit her square in the jaw.

"It's the thought that counts." Emma gave her a small smile. "Besides, REUs look super good on grad school applications."

Regina laughed at that. "I suppose they do."

At that moment Regina's phone rang loudly. The only person she actually had the ringer go off for was her mother. Both of them stilled immediately. Regina snapped out of it a second later when the phone rang again. She reached into her pocket and drew it out.

"Hello, Mother," she said evenly.

Emma looked on, watching Regina's face carefully. Regina's parents hadn't come to visit at all during the semester. She had thought it for the best, but she knew from the way Regina kept making more and more excuses for them that it hurt her in a way as much as it relieved her. Her mother rarely even called and when she did it threw off Regina for days afterward. Emma even caught her crying once after a call when she came back from class early. She had a feeling that wasn't the only time Regina had cried over her mother either.

"Surely mother I could at least—" Regina cut off midsentence. Her face was collapsing slowly but surely as every second passed.

"He does understand that it is the holiday season, right?" She winced after the words were out of her mouth.

Emma squeezed Regina's hand. She had never let go of it and now she was glad. Regina swallowed hard and looked up at Emma with pained eyes. Her thumb started to make soothing circles on Regina's palm. She just wanted to protect the girl in front of her at all costs. She wished she could do that, defend her against even her own mother, but she knew there were many limits to what she could do.

"No, mother, I understand that he is your most important client, but it is almost Christmas and I was greatly looking forward to—" she cut off again. Tears were starting to gather in Regina's eyes.

"Yes, I understand. But what about Daddy?" Regina was gripping onto Emma like she was the only anchor she had. Her grip on the phone was turning her knuckles white.

Emma wondered what the hell was going on. She had an idea, but if what she was thinking was true it was completely ridiculous and Cora was a hell of a lot more heartless than she had ever thought.

"But since he's your client I thought that Daddy wouldn't be needed, mother." Regina was trying so very hard not to cry, Emma could see it. Her voice was still steady, if a bit more hoarse right now. She wondered just how Regina did it. She bet Cora didn't even know anything was wrong with Regina since her voice was so steady.

"Yes, mother, I'll make my plans accordingly, then." Regina pulled the phone away from her face and hit the end button calmly. She looked up at Emma, eyes like a storm. The calm demeanor on the outside would break soon and the storm Emma could see in her eyes would be unleashed on the world. And Emma knew that they needed to be anywhere but in the middle of a restaurant when that happened.

"Excuse me for just a moment, Emma." Regina got up and walked towards the bathrooms at a measured pace.

As soon as she was out of sight Emma shot up and went to the counter. Granny cocked an eyebrow at her and bustled towards her.

"You look like something's got you in a twist. What is it?" Granny asked.

"Regina's mom just called and believe me that's not a good thing. Could you pack up our food and throw in two chocolate milkshakes?" Emma dug out more than enough money to cover it. "I have to go and do enough damage control that I can get her out of the bathroom and home, but we'll need to eat and that should be enough." She handed the money to Granny, already moving towards the bathroom.

Fucking Cora. She was an absolute piece of shit of a mother. She'd had a couple of better foster mothers and that was saying something considering none of the foster parents she had were that grand.

She opened the door to the bathroom and heard quiet, broken breathing. The one time she had walked in on Regina crying before that was all she had heard. Regina, even when she was balling her eyes out, was almost silent. She was sure there was a reason for that that she probably didn't want to know.

"Regina?" She called out softly.

The quiet breathing stopped. Emma frowned and started to push open the stalls. If Regina wasn't going to make it easy, so be it. It was a small bathroom. She pushed open the last door and Regina was sitting on the toilet, head in her hands. Emma dropped to her needs in front of her.

"Regina? I know that was your mother, but what happened?"

Regina lifted her face, streaked with tears and blotchy red. "She called to inform me that they won't be here tomorrow to pick me up as planned. In fact, they won't be seeing me at all this break as both of them will be in Switzerland with one of mother's clients. Her client insisted she bring Daddy because they both like soccer and he wanted someone to watch games with him or something of the sort." She drew in a ragged breath.

"So she's going to spend Christmas with a guy who's paying her instead of her daughter."

Regina nodded. "I don't know what's wrong with me that she doesn't want to spend time with me. I do everything she's ever asked of me and ten times more and I just…" Regina sobbed again quietly.

Emma reached up and cupped Regina's face, wiping the tears from her face. "There's nothing wrong with you and there's everything wrong with her. You're a wonderful person, Regina, and everyone should want to spend Christmas with you."

"That's kind of you to say."

"It's true. I'm not saying it just to be kind."

Regina stared at her for a long moment, with Emma's hands still on her cheeks, wiping away any new tears that might flow down her face.

"Come on, let's get you home. I had Granny pack up our food for us so we've still got finals fuel." She smiled at Regina as best as she could when her heart was breaking for the girl in front of her. She had been disabused of her perfect pictures of families long ago, but this was just so…she didn't even know. No matter what her mind would always think of family meaning perfect Christmases, they didn't even have to have gifts as long as they were happy. And this was about as far from that as possible.

She stood and dropped her hands down from Regina's face to grip and the girl's hands loosely. Regina came with her willingly, face still blotchy red, but at least clear of tears. Hopefully anyone looking would think that she had just been out in the cold too long.

The bag of food was waiting for them with their two chocolate shakes besides. Emma grabbed it all, shot a small smile at Granny in thanks, and kept leading Regina from the restaurant. When she was setting the food in Regina's lap for the trip back she had an idea. She turned the Bug on and pulled out of the parking lot, but instead of turning back towards campus she turned towards Walmart.

Regina wasn't even paying attention, staring out the window, unseeing. Emma drove quickly. It wasn't that far from Granny's to Walmart. When they finally pulled in the parking lot Regina realized that something wasn't right.

"Emma, what are we doing here?" She asked, brow scrunched.

"She might not want to celebrate Christmas with you, but I do. And that means we're going to buy some decorations for the room and deck it out however we see fit while we listen to bad Christmas music and eat those crappy sugar cookies from the Walmart bakery just because we damn well can."

Regina looked at her again for a long moment, looking her over as if she was checking to make sure that Emma meant what she said. Emma just looked back evenly. She had meant every single word and then some. A slow smile broke out on Regina's face.

"Ok."

Emma nodded. "Awesome! Um, you're gonna have to help. I actually really don't know how to decorate for Christmas. My foster families weren't exactly big on it. What do we even need?"

Regina laughed quietly. "I can help with that." She got out and looked back at Emma as she was putting the food on the seat. "Come on."

Emma followed her into the store as watched and Regina grabbed a few strings of multicolored lights and tiny little plastic tree along with a set of tiny bulbs to go with it. There was a set of window stickers and a tacky wreath too. It was the most Christmas stuff Emma had ever seen together for her own use. It was a little bit overwhelming, but Regina smiled bigger and bigger with every minute that passed.

When they went up to pay for everything, Emma wouldn't let Regina pay for anything. It was going to affect her finances just a little bit more than she would like, but fuck it. You only live once. She'd just pick up a few more shifts at Granny's on weekends during the semester or over break, whatever worked, she knew the old woman wouldn't mind.

They carted everything back to their room, food and all, and did just what Emma had said they would. They decorated, playing stupid Christmas music that Emma had always hated, stringing up lights around the room with thumbtacks and left over command hooks until the entire room was lit up in various shades of blue, green, yellow, and red. Regina put the little tree on her desk and set to decorating it carefully, balancing out the placement of each bulb like it was an art.

When she was done Emma grabbed their food and stuck it in their microwave and heated it up. She grabbed the shakes out of their mini fridge while she was at it and stuck the straws in them. Regina finished with the tree while she was at it and went to hang up the wreath. Emma looked it all over just as the microwave dinged. It really did look exactly like she had always thought Christmas should. Fuck blood families, she had found all the family she needed in Regina, she hoped that was true for Regina as well.

When Regina finished Emma handed her all her food and went to plop down on her bed to eat her share. She took a drink of her shake and groaned. Chocolate heaven. Regina came over and sat down on Emma's bed as well, quietly eating.

"So, do you actually want to put the window things on the window, or did you have some other place in mind?" Emma asked to break the silence.

"The window is fine. The kind we got might stain the walls."

Emma nodded. This was all just so foreign to her, but it was a good feeling in a way. She was glad it was Regina who was showing her.

They ate exchanging small talk, but it was more subdued than normal. Emma got the feeling that Regina was better now after decorating, but now that they were sitting around she was back to thinking. Emma scooted closer and bumped Regina's shoulder just enough to let her know she was there and finished off the last of her food. Regina needed to think things through, she knew that, but that didn't mean she ever wanted to see the girl sad and pensive like this. She was just glad that her little impromptu decorating idea had cheered her up even a little.

When they were both done Emma cleaned up all the trash from their little decorating escapade and meal while Regina worked on the window stickers. When she got back from the garbage room Regina was done, looking at plastic Christmas trees and penguins on the window with a ghost of a smile.

"Come on," Emma said, walking over to her bed and patting the spot beside her. "Might as well watch a Christmas movie while we're at it. Any requests?"

"Elf," Regina said immediately.

Emma laughed. "I totally pegged you for an It's a Wonderful Life type, but Elf it is." Emma pulled up a streaming site and they both sat and watched it for a little while.

Regina fell asleep halfway through cuddled up to Emma. Emma didn't have the heart to move her until after the movie was over and she had to pee badly. Regina had just looked far too peaceful. But she had to get up. Regina roused readily, not sleeping deeply. Emma smiled down at her.

"Come on sleepy head, let's get ready for bed. You've gotta ace that astro final tomorrow, not that it's going to be a problem for you."

"I was going to use tonight to review everything, oh god." Regina's eyes widened.

"You'll be fine. You took a mental health day. Everyone needs them now and then and you're a natural in that class. You aced all the other tests and assignments. You'll be fine."

Regina seemed to at least halfway accept Emma's words. Emma just smiled at her once more before going to shower and get ready for bed.

By the time she was back Regina was sitting on her bed in pjs. She looked up at Emma coming through the door. She bit her lip and hesitated. Emma titled her head to the side.

"What is it?"

Regina stood up and walked over to Emma's side of the room as Emma went about putting her shower stuff away. She took the towel off her head and dried her hair as best she could before flopping the thing over the rail on the back of their door and turning back to Regina who still hadn't spoken. She walked over to her bed and turned to Regina with a cocked eyebrow.

"I just wanted to thank you for all of this. I don't think you know how much it meant to me."

Emma grabbed Regina's hand and squeezed. "It was no problem. You are my best friend after all."

Regina hesitated again at those words. After another second, though, she moved forward, closing the already minuscule distance between them. Emma's breath hitched. She didn't know what was going on exactly. But then Regina's lips were on hers and she knew exactly what was going on. Regina. Regina was kissing her and she couldn't believe it, but she kissed Regina back with just as much intensity because if this wasn't real, by god she was going to enjoy it anyway. And if it was…well then there was even more a reason.

They pulled apart after a minute. Emma swallowed looking at Regina, still so very close to her. Regina's lips were red and swollen just from the little bit of kissing they had done. She didn't know if she could handle it.

"Regina? What was that?" Her voice was shaking.

"A thank you, amongst other things." Regina herself was a bit breathless.

"What are the other things?" She just had to know if this was real, if it had the potential of happening again.

"I'm not sure, but something more."

"O-ok, so that could happen again?"

Regina tucked a piece of hair behind Emma's ear. "If you want it to."

Emma nodded. "Yeah, I do."

Regina smiled at her, tired, lazy, and relieved. "Ok." She took a deep breath. "Emma, earlier when I was napping during the movie I've slept the best I have in a while. Can I…?" Regina trailed off like she didn't quite know how to voice the question.

"Yeah, you can." Emma stood up, turned back her covers and slipped in, patting the space beside her again. "Come on."

Regina paused for just half a second before slipping in beside Emma after clicking off the light. The room was still bathed in the light of the Christmas lights, but as far as Emma was concerned it was perfect. Regina was asleep against her in minutes.

Emma looked down at the girl. Yeah, they were definitely more than just friends. A lot more than just friends. Emma thanked every deity she knew for that and finally drifted off to sleep herself.


End file.
